{"id":8369,"date":"2012-07-12T06:00:48","date_gmt":"2012-07-12T10:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/?p=8369"},"modified":"2012-07-12T06:00:48","modified_gmt":"2012-07-12T10:00:48","slug":"future-funny-writers-of-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/?p=8369","title":{"rendered":"Future Funny Writers of America"},"content":{"rendered":"

I just got to do one of my favorite “duties” of the year: announcing the winner of the humor award we give out annually at the Vermont College of Fine Arts. I’ve written about the origins of the scholarship here<\/a>; it’s a small recognition of the great contribution humor makes to children’s literature. Even books we mainly think of as serious, powerful, deep, and inspiring (think of Katherine Paterson’s work, for example), are often leavened with levity, mirroring real life, rich life, generous-hearted, big-spirited, funny life.
\nHere’s how VCFA describes the award on their website<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Flying Pig Grade-A, Number-One Ham Humor Award\"\"<\/a><\/h3>\n

This is the program\u2019s one and only humor award! Students enrolled in any semester of the program are eligible to apply for this annual award of $775.00. We are so grateful to alumna Elizabeth Bluemle (7\/04) and Josie Leavitt for sponsoring this special prize.\u00a0 [Snipped to excise many embarrassingly kind words about us and the store.]\u00a0 Elizabeth and Josie read blind copies of the humor manuscripts and select the winning submission each spring.
\n***
\nWe love giving this award. Only students who are as yet unpublished may submit manuscripts; we hope that, in addition to recognizing the importance of humor in writing for children, the award provides a little bit more confidence for these talented aspiring authors.
\nThis year, we had our biggest crop of submissions yet, and along with the winner, there were three honorable mentions. Since these are works in progress, I don’t want to give away too much, but I can’t resist sharing a little bit of what we loved, and alert you to some names you should be watching out for in the coming years:
\n2012 Winner:<\/strong> Aimee Payne, for Candy from Strangers<\/em>. In addition to being crisply, sharply funny, this short story\u2014which we hope the author will turn into a novel\u2014has great characters, well-wrought creepy suspense, and beautifully vivid sensory details. Funny and creepy; not a combination you see often in books, although it works really well in teen horror movies. If this were a novel, teens would be all<\/em> over it<\/em>.
\n2012 Honorable Mentions:<\/strong>
\nStephen Bramucci, for What’s the Worst That Could Happen?<\/em> The kind of delightful MG farce you don’t see enough of these days. Sheer silliness and over-the-top situations \u2014 in a good way.
\nBonnie Berry LaMon, for The Backward Life of Selah Selim<\/em>, whose refreshing, appealing, sporty main character lights up every page she’s on.
\nLaurie Morrison, for Worst-Case Scenario<\/em>, which shows a teen coping with a difficult and unusual situation through writing and her sense of humor.
\nPast winners include: 2011\u2014Sharon Van Zandt; 2010\u2014Susan Barker; 2009\u2014Katie Bayerl (summer); 2009\u2014Sarah Ziegelmayer; Simon Fill (spring); 2008\u2014(not given); 2007\u2014Erik Talkin; 2006\u2014Dianne White; 2005\u2014Zu Vincent.
\n***
\nOurs was one of several scholarships awarded this evening. It was a lovely event, and the students’ rousing cheers for each other’s successes filled the room. After the prizes were given out, there was one more special event: a reading given by a student who is the first person to be in both the Writing for Children & Young Adults MFA program and the adult Writing program. Patrick Downes is his name, and I mention him not only because (as I discovered this evening) he works at Montpelier’s Rivendell Books<\/a>, but because he read an absolutely dynamite picture book manuscript, Angus Runs Away<\/em>, and trust me, you’ll want to remember his name along with the FPGANOH-HA! winners.
\nIn celebration of the funny stuff \u2014 what are your favorite funny books of 2012 so far?<\/em>
\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I just got to do one of my favorite “duties” of the year: announcing the winner of the humor award we give out annually at the Vermont College of Fine Arts. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8369","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8369","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8369"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8369\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}